Crazy Horses

If you ever visit Las Vegas, you can't help but notice the ads and billboards for shows in town that are everywhere in sight. Some of them are so huge, you can't ignore them, such as the ad for The Beatles' Cirque du Soleil "Love" show, which covers the whole top floor of the Mirage Hotel, or the amazing wrap job featuring the multi-floor visages of Donny and Marie Osmond, which is plastered over the entire south tower of the Flamingo Hotel, where they are appearing. In a way, an ad that size is saying that the performer has 'arrived' at the pinnacle of their success, and of their value as a performer, simply because they're in Vegas. It also must be a Vegas thing that every star performer is billed only by their first name, as it is assumed that the public already knows who Celine, Elton, Shania or Donny or Marie is. I won't quote numbers here, but suffice it to say that ticket pricing for any of these shows is beyond outrageous. The Beatles "Love" show is one that I did attend, and I would recommend it to everyone. "Love" is absolutely fantastic! Catch it if you can.

A 1972 ad for the album "Crazy Horses"

So, back to the Osmonds. In the early 1970's, Donny Osmond and his brothers were very successful as a live act and sold a ton of records; no small thanks to Donny's status as the Justin Bieber of his day, except that Donny managed to avoid becoming the entitled jerk that Bieber has proven to be. Most of The Osmonds' songs fell squarely into the Pop sub-category of Bubblegum, which was still producing bands like The Sweet and The Bay City Rollers at the time. But their 1972 single, "Crazy Horses", was something of a departure for The Osmonds, as it rocked considerably harder than 95% of their repertoire. It's comparable to when Bread, a band whose music was as soft as their name, released "Mother Freedom", which had the same effect of out-rocking the rest of the band's catalog. "Crazy Horses" reached #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 in the UK Singles Chart. The song is allegedly a protest about the amount of pollution created by cars, but I can't vouch for that.

This video is SO much of its time, and was probably made for one of the "In Concert" shows that were so popular then. It's a hoot and a half seeing the singing, dancing Osmond brothers pretending to be a real live rock band. They're lip-synching to the record for sure, but at least the guitars and mics are plugged in. Enjoy!

Over the years since this song was popular, many cover versions and tribute albums that feature 70's Teen Pop music have surfaced; mostly done by bands that normally play Power Pop. This is fitting, as Power Pop bands have long cited 60's and 70's Bubblegum singles as an early influence. So, who do you think has covered "Crazy Horses" more than anyone? Would you believe Techno and Prog/Metal bands? I didn't either, but that's the clear case.

So far, "Crazy Horses" has been recorded by the likes of The Mission, Tank, Lawnmower Deth, Westlife, The Frames, KMFDM, Tigertailz, Electric Six, Lifescreen, and today's feature artists, Morse, Portnoy and George.

"Cover 2 Cover" is the second CD of covers from Neal Morse, Mike Portnoy and Randy George. Morse and bassist George have played with prog bands such as Transatlantic, Spock's Beard and Flying Colors. Drummer/vocalist Portnoy is late of Dream Theater.

Portnoy describes the process of selecting songs to cover: "One of the first things myself, Neal and Randy usually start talking about when we gather for one of Neal's solo albums is what we can cover should we have some leftover time at the end of the session. And now, over the course of 2 CD's, we've covered 28 songs ranging from the obscure to the classics. Like the first "Cover To Cover" album, most of the song choices on this CD are rooted in the 70's and are songs and bands we grew up with".

Here's a promo video of Morse, Portnoy and George recording their rendition of "Crazy Horses". I honestly don't think they did this as a joke. They're approaching it as a hard rock song that may have moved them as kids, much as Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters has said how he loved Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein" when he was young. Of course, some of our readers haven't taken Metal seriously since Spinal Tap, so they may find this just as funny as The Osmonds!

Surprisingly, or maybe not, most of The Osmonds recorded work from the 70's is still in print, although there are a couple of decent 'best-of' collections available that should satisfy all but the most dedicated Osmondphile. You know they're out there, too.

Music from Morse, Portnoy and George can be found on the Radiant Records website, along with lots of other proggy metal custard. It's always best to buy direct from independent artists, wouldn't you say?